Ordinary People
by Animiga
Summary: One shot post-ep for "Skin and Bones." They're all ordinary people, but they've become a family.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Crossing Jordan, it's characters or the song Ordinary People. Someone else does.

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_**Ordinary People**_

_**Lily…**_

She watched them arguing. It was so normal. Bug and Nigel arguing over some insane, inane thing. Sometimes she thought that Bug purposely chose the other side of an argument just so he could argue with Nigel about it. It seemed to be his way of fitting in. Nigel, on the other hand, could be so adamant about something that he'd go around in circles, literally, figuratively and logically, just to prove his point. In some weird way… they complimented each other. Even though they drove each other up the walls and it wasn't uncommon for a day or two to pass by with them not speaking to or ignoring each other, you couldn't go long with out seeing them walking down the hall, side by side, arguing about something stupid like, well, like the exact color and ingredients of cheddar cheese. She'd seen that one just last week.

Slowly she slapped her phone shut after her conversation with Garret, sliding it into her purse without breaking eye contact with the two men in the room. She chuckled. Nigel just threw chopsticks at Bug. It seemed to be Nigel's way of making both himself and Bug feel better: get back to routine as soon as possible. She had noticed how devastated Nigel had been, and she couldn't blame the obscenely tall Brit for wanting to snap out of the funk.

God, the last twenty four hours had been so, so….so something. She felt disconnected. Finding the mass grave hadn't been surprising… she was almost used to things like that around the morgue. But then Cal had shown up and made Woody all jumpy; Bug had been attacked, which made Nigel and the rest of them both mopey and energized at the same time. Garret had obviously been worried. Oh, he had seemed like his usual gruff, determined self, but Lily had noticed how gentle he'd been whenever he talked with anyone else on the staff. Jordan had stayed on late. Lily didn't even think she'd gone home, even though she was scheduled to be on the next day's shift. Woody had stopped by the hospital a couple times, and Lily had noticed the anxious, frantic look on his face when ever he looked over at Bug. Even Sidney had seemed more reflective and had let up on the wisecracks.

As far as her own feelings…just observing everyone else's had jumbled her own. She wasn't quite sure what she felt yet. But just having Bug awake and back to his normal self had already made everything seem more cohesive.

Uh oh. Bug managed to reach the chopsticks somehow and just threw them back at Nigel. It looked like it was time to put the stripped shirt back on.

"Hey, hey. Play nice!" she said, stepping back into the room.

_**Nigel…**_

"Who are you? Wake up." He threw the chopsticks at his friend before he even realized what he had done. For a half second, his mind backtracked. What had he just done? Here's his best friend lying in a hospital bed after a 26 hour unwarranted and unwanted nap and what does he do? Throw chopsticks at him!

The frantic thought retreated almost as soon as it had come. Bug was family; the closest thing he's got to a brother. Bug needed him now to make him feel better, not to wallow in the depression inevitably accompanied big white hospital rooms.

Nigel thought about what he'd just said to Bug. How the gals and blokes at the morgue had become his family. They were a heck of a lot closer than his biological family too, and not just physically. Garret was like the dad – teaching them, helping them learn from their mistakes, occasionally jumping into the fun and morbid sense of humor that permeated the morgue, and disciplining them when they were being stupid. Lily was the mothering daughter – lifting everyone's spirits and offering the proverbial cup of hot cocoa if they ever proverbially skinned their knee. Jordan was the wild child older sister. Woody was the cousin who was always coming over to visit, and practically lived there. And Bug was his brother. The one he'd fight with, and claim to hate, but for whom he'd crawl through the fires of hell.

Yes, these last 24 hours hadn't been pleasant ones. Bug being hurt had hurt him far worse than he'd ever thought. He remembered not even feeling an ounce of indignation when the FBI had taken over the crime scene. But now things were starting to look up. Bug was…hey! Bug was throwing the chopsticks back at him! Oh, well see how he likes this! I'll show him a spicy tuna roll, he thought as Lily's heels clicked back into the room.

_**Bug…**_

Being unconscious hadn't been so bad. What Iris had been doing was very, very not unpleasant. Except for the minataur head thing. But even that didn't seem weird.

What was weird was seeing the look on Nigel's face. He looked so…un – Nigel. He had wondered if he was dying, even though his body didn't feel like it was dying. Admittedly, it didn't feel good, especially his left temple. But even though he worked mostly with the dead, he knew enough about medicine to know that what he was feeling was not going to make him dead. He was almost positive. So he had asked Nigel.

Nigel had laughed. That stupid laugh of his. It was always so carefree? How did he get it that way? But it was good to hear. A couple sentences later, Nigel seemed back to his old self. But something resonated…

A family. That is kind of what they were. His own family was so far away. Even though he called them all the time, it was nice to have another family so much closer. He could always talk to Nigel about some interesting new study or bar he'd found. Jordan kept him from being a stick in the mud, encouraged him to get out there and take chances. Woody usually countered her and told him any of Jordan's advice with a grain of salt – which usually kept him from getting arrested. Garret helped him whenever he got stuck professionally; Lily whenever he got stuck emotionally. Lily. Here she comes breezing into the room. It occurred to him that he didn't remember dreaming about Lily while he was unconscious. Maybe that meant he was over her? Naw, it probably meant that he just wasn't obsessing over her anymore. Which might be a good thing...

Crispy eel? He'd never liked crispy eel. Or did he? No, he was sure he didn't. Wait, did Nigel just toss chopsticks at him?

_**Garret…**_

Garret would never tell anyone how relieved he'd been to hear that Bug had woken up. And to hear that he and Nigel were already bickering. Made him feel like he'd just dodged another bullet.

Sometimes he felt like he was always trying to dodge bullets in this place. Of course there were always the hurdles he'd had to jump as far as paperwork was concerned. And there was the DA and the ADA always riding his butt. But he'd also have to deal with the problems / potential disasters that seemed to occur on a daily basis around here. Nigel and Bug bickering, Nigel's constant tinkering, Lily's need to help every soul that came in the door, what ever stick Jordan had gotten her teeth into lately – though Woody had been helping on that front lately, bodies disappearing.

And he wouldn't trade any of it.

While some people felt their jobs aged them prematurely, Garret felt that his helped keep him young. He felt energized and useful when he was doing his job. He never could understand most people's morbid – what a word to use around here, he thought – preoccupation with growing old, or growing to hate their jobs. He loved his job, and the people who did it with him, and would do it for a long as his body let him.

This whole day had proved just how strong the team was. The team had somehow grown to include Woody, he realized, looking at him and Jordan sitting on the couch, but none of the other homicide detectives. Maybe it was because the young Wisconsinite treated them like equals, even when he was yelling at them for doing something outside procedure. Woody had managed to do his work on the case even while visiting Bug and doing whatever needed to be done for his brother. Jordan and Sidney had worked well after their shifts were over to not only nail and identify the man who had attacked Bug but also to identify the bodies and help the police and FBI. Lily had mentioned how bizarre and nearly unnatural it felt to be making notifications to people who didn't seem to care. But she had soldiered on, knowing that each family deserved closure, whether they wanted it or not.

He rubbed his eyes as he left Woody and Jordan in the office, on his way to visit Bug. Days like today didn't make him want to quit his job, didn't make him feel old. They only made him want to work harder. Make it so there wouldn't be more days like this one.

_**Jordan…**_

Woody looked like he had been through the wringer. He hadn't made one of his stupid jokes or comments all day. She couldn't help but worry. Then she frowned. When had she started to worry about other people like this? She knew she worried whenever Lily seemed to take things too close to the heart. Lily was her friend, and she didn't want to see her get hurt. And she worried if too much time went by with Bug and Nigel not talking to each other. But that was because it just wasn't natural for them not to talk to each other… wasn't it?

She sighed and watched Woody's face while Garret was on the phone with Lily. She had definitely changed in the last couple years. Sure she was still aggressive when it came to her cases and didn't let anyone stop her when she knew that justice wasn't being done. Justice was her forte. Every time, she's been bound and determined that everyone get and answer to death… just like she hadn't been.

This case had been different. First with Bug getting hurt. That had angered her beyond belief. She was going to help catch the guy if it was the last thing she could do. She'd managed to get an ID on the guy, but even she knew she couldn't go out to the clubs and asks questions. Her looks and the simple fact that she was a woman would mean she'd only get bad pick-up lines and no answers. And then to find out that Woody's brother had been involved. It helped her understand just a little better why Farm Boy here was acting the way he was.

Jordan was telling the truth when she told Calvin that Woody was the closest person to sainthood she'd ever met. She'd always thought it was because he'd had life so easy. If life was easy, it was easy to be carefree like Woody. Part of her used that excuse as the reason her own life felt so screwed up. But Woody's life hadn't been easy. His parents had died when he was young and he'd had to raise a brother while dealing with his own guilt and pain.

Bug had woken up, Garret said. She wanted to go see him, and she would. But right now Woody needed her. It wasn't often he opened up; heck, it wasn't often she gave him the chance. She waited until Garret had left the room, turned to look at Woody, and waited.

_**Woody…**_

Woody felt like he had been through the wringer. Contact with Calvin seemed to do that to him. Maybe it was just that he was out of practice. He hadn't been to visit Cal in almost a year.

He wasn't sure exactly what had made him decide to take the tough love approach this time. Sure, he'd tried it before, but each time, he'd ended up breaking down and helping him out again. This time, though, even before Bug had been hurt, even before Calvin had put Jordan in danger, he'd made the decision.

He heard himself starting to talk to Jordan, and was a bit surprised when she didn't make a quick-witted comment and brush it off, or make a joke.

"I do know it's true that he's not the only thing you got in this world."

Those words rocked through him and tore at his already fragile grip. Jesus. Why did everything happen right now, all at once? It had started so quietly. Calvin asking for money, and then his sudden appearance. But Bug got hurt, and Calvin was involved. And all the energy and emotion he'd put into helping Cal over the years just wasn't there. And it confused the hell out of him. And when he realized that Jordan was in danger – regardless of the fact that Calvin had put her there – he realized where it had gone. It had gone to his new friends here. A couple of the guys at the precinct, Nigel, Bug, Lily, Garret, even Sidney and a couple of the others around here. But most of it had gone to Jordan. Even if they never got together, even if she never slept with him, he was already emotionally involved with her. She had managed to become his best friend. And he needed her right now. His world was falling apart and collapsing on him all at the same time. He let himself lean into her easy embrace, felt her small hand in his. He didn't know if she knew, if she felt it, but somehow just her presence gave him a sense of comfort he hadn't felt in years, in decades, actually.

He didn't know how much time she let him lean on her before she finally got his attention by shifting her arm and calling his name.

"Woody?"

He sighed, closing his eyes, knowing the moment was over. "Yeah?"

"Not that this isn't great," she said softly, without sarcasm. "But my arm's falling asleep."

He felt his lips curve in a soft smile. "Yeah." He shifted back up in his seat and stretched out, feeling his back crack itself back into alignment. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She rubbed a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah. I told you already, I'm fine… Come on, let's go visit Bug. We should at least try getting there before visiting hours end."

He smiled as he helped her up. "You know, I do have a badge."

"Right," she said, smiling, the mischevious twinkle returning to her eye as she thread her arm through his. "Give you a real power trip to flash that thing, doesn't it."

He didn't answer, merely smiled lightly and kept moving down the corridor.

She walked beside him in silence. Her Farm Boy would be all right. It would take a little more time, but he'd be all right. They all would.


End file.
